The present disclosure relates to an observation system, an observation program, and an observation method for observing an observation target object by using a microscope.
At a time when an observation target object such as a cell is observed, the observation target object is difficult to be brought into view of a microscope in some cases. In particular, for example, in the case where a floating cell that floats in a culture solution is observed, the cell moves in the culture solution by itself, or the cell is moved due to vibrations or the like associated with a movement of a stage. In this case, a user has to adjust the stage or a focal position and make a search for a desired observation target object while looking at a field of view of the microscope. In particular, when an observation time period becomes longer, the user has to make a search for the observation target object for each predetermined time period, so this task is a heavy burden on the user.
Meanwhile, a technology of tracking a movement of an observation target object by image processing has been developed. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2012-200156 discloses a cell tracking processing method in which image processing is performed for observation images including a plurality of cells which are taken at predetermined time intervals, and on the basis of morphological characteristics of the cells obtained by analyzing the amount of characteristics, the cells between the observation images are associated.